Romney raises $10M in week since Ryan selected as VP

The Republican's presidential campaign announced the cash surge on Friday as part of a memo that highlighted a boost in polls it said Romney had gained by picking Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican.

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The memo from Matt Rhoades, Romney's campaign manager, said 68 percent of donations this week were from new donors, and that the average donation was $81. The average donation amount is something President Obama's campaign often points to in arguing it has more grassroots support from small donors than does Romney.

The numbers released by the campaign suggest the choice to add Ryan,a conservative Wisconsin Republican, to Romney's ticket stirred up
grassroots support.

"Polling data shows Romney gaining since the announcement," Rhoades wrote. "Both Gallup and Rasmussen show us leading Obama in national polling, and recent statewide polling shows us picking up ground in Ohio and Virginia," the memo said.

Other signs the Ryan pick has helped Romney's campaign include the fact that it has signed up more than 45,000 new volunteers online, while the main Romney website has seen 2 million hits in a week.

In the days after Romney picked Ryan, some Republican strategists voiced doubts about the choice. They argued Ryan's embrace of significant Medicare reforms as chairman of the House Budget Committee could hurt the Romney ticket and Republicans down ballot.

Gallup's national daily tracking poll on Wednesday showed Romney’s standing in the presidential race has not changed since he announced Ryan as his running mate, prompting the Obama campaignto release a memo that called reaction to Ryan's addition to the ticket "flat."

But Romney's campaign has insisted it is drawing significant momentum from Ryan; the campaign reported raising $3.5 million in the 24 hours following the announcement last weekend.

The Romney campaign has also seen higher interest on social media. Ryan now has more than 900,000 Facebook "likes," and about 122,000 Twitter followers, with those numbers still growing since the memo was sent out. Romney has gained more than 500,000 new Facebook "likes" and nearly 55,000 new Twitter followers.